Trending

INTERVIEW: Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano at TomorrowWorld

by Nicole Mastrogiannis

Sunnery James & Maricano have played at any dance music festival you can think of. After coming up with the anthem for Dance Valley, and also playing a set in New York City's famed Central Park, they hit the main stage at the very first TomorrowWorld.

We caught up with Sunnery and Ryan after their set on the main stage at TomorrowWorld, where they talked about their new track with Nicky Romero "S.O.T.U.," their definition of underground, what's in their rider, and more. Find out what he had to say:

How was performing on the main stage of TomorrowWorld?

Mind-blowing. Today they blew [us] away with all those books and stuff on stage, and the crowd was amazing. Awesome! The first moment we started, the energy level was 100, and one hour is way too short. It's really nice, yeah.

How does this compare to Tomorrowland for you guys?

Actually we [were] a bit [skeptical] about it. To be honest, is it going to be the same thing? It's TomorrowWorld, it’s gotta be different. The whole area, it's the same thing, the same vibe. I can't say if it's better or not, it’s the same experience. I think they did a really good job, to give the same atmosphere as in Belgium. Yeah, really good.

How was working with Nicky Romero on "S.O.T.U.?" How did you guys get together?

We know each other from Amsterdam, when the scene, when we were doing gigs in Amsterdam. And to work with him is quite easy. We have the same interest in music, same kind of hype. Actually it started to two years ago, and then we got back to it, and we finished it in one day. So, um that's it. And we just started out to some friends and everyone started playing it. It worked out very well. [At] Tomorrowland it was the most played record. Tomorrowland. It's crazy.

You guys asked your fans on Facebook what their definition of the Underground was. What is your definition of the Underground?

Our definition of underground is our underground. Everybody has his own underground. And for us it's, let me go back to our roots where it all started. Maybe just it's even commercial but for us it’s underground because it was just our feeling, our beginning of getting into dance music. So Earth, Wind & Fire was something underground for me particularly. Because it was something what triggered me to get into dance music and more up-tempo music. And that’s the definition from me. Underground. For everyone it's different.

And you guys just played Size In The Park in New York City's Central Park?How did it go?

Amazing. New York is our hometown. It's the best place to play and we love it. I mean it's feels like home, and our set unbelievable. When we came onstage, so much love from New York. And we love New York. It's crazy, it's unbelievable that they do a party there. But still everywhere in the world we can tell "we played in the Park, Central Park." Everybody in the world knows it. So we're kind of proud to do something. It's a big honor to play there.

And also a big honor for you guys, you wrote the anthem for Dance Valley"Triton." Yeah how was that? It's called "Triton"

Yeah, it's a well-known festival, DanceValley. It was one of the biggest festivals in the world. Every big DJ played there. Anyways when they ask us to do the anthem, it was easy to say yes, and we just worked hard in the studio. And we had a collab going with DubVision, and we just sent it out to the guys, and they loved it. It's doing really well, it's still in the charts on BeatPort. Everybody's playing it, David Guetta, the Swedes. It's good for us, we're getting there. We’re happy production-wise, so it's fun.

We saw the picture on your Facebook of Ryan eating sushi while on stage.Is that in your rider?

No, no, no, we're not like that at all. We just have some drinks that's it, and nothing special. But we were in a rush. We went straight from the airport to the venue, and we were like, "I'm hungry, I'm hungry!" And they were like okay, we'll bring you sushi to the booth. We're easy going. We're not like crazy riders. But [there was] only one problem ... there were no chopsticks! (Laughs)

We're working on two tracks coming out, probably on Spinnin'. One of the two maybe is going to go on Refune or Musical Freedom. We were just talking to the guys, so there's so many options. So, then we're working on collabs with Sander van Doorn, and Steve Angello still. The track is almost ready with Steve Angello. We still need to find a way to get it out though, we've been working three years on the track. (Laughs) With Fedde (Le Grand), we're going to do something. Just working hard on our own things and projects. There's a podcast coming out, a radio show. So we’re quite busy with a lot of new stuff. During Amsterdam Dance Event, we're hosting our own room. And it's going to be good. We have Steve Angello, Fedde Le Grand, it’s pretty nice line-up. Sexy By Nature, we did a whole season in Ibiza and we’re gonna bring it to Amsterdam for the event. And we sold out already. So it's crazy.